EDITORIAL: Kerwin a good choice for Michigan House

The Michigan Legislature has grown increasingly partisan and special interests -- whether the utilities, insurance companies or unions -- seem to be playing a more dominant role in recent years.

Voters ought to elect people who will stand apart from the lobbyists and party leaders if they have the choice. Too often they don't.

Former state Rep. Tim Melton, a Democrat from Auburn Hills, was an example of the rare individual who could reach across party lines and forge alliances. It came in very handy as he served as chairman of the House Education Committee, although he took a lot of heat as a result.

There is hope that Mary Kerwin, by representing Troy and Clawson, could play such a role in the Michigan House of Representatives. She served eight years as a member of the Troy Board of Education and a term on the Troy City Council, so she is accustomed to working with people of differing viewpoints.

She has a long history of involvement in Troy community affairs. She recently was named as this year's Distinguished Citizen by Leadership Troy, a community improvement organization with a 19-year history.

Kerwin conducts training sessions for elected officials and is a member of the Michigan Association of School Boards' Effective Partnerships Program, facilitating productive development in leadership teams.

That is a quality that should be in high demand in Lansing, where bipartisanship is the exception rather than the rule.

Kerwin is the Democratic nominee for the seat now held by Marty Knollenberg, a Republican. She is promising to work in an independent fashion and is capable of doing so despite her own strongly held positions.

One example of an issue where she previously crossed swords with her opponent, Republican Martin Howrylak, is the Troy Public Library. Howrylak, also a former city council member, opposed designated funding for the library while Kerwin favored it, a position ultimately adopted by voters last year.

Howrylak is running as an anti-tax crusader, even promising to work to phase out the state income tax. While that may sound inviting, it leaves open the question of how government would be financed.

Kerwin, meanwhile, is taking the much more practical stance of repealing the state's new pension tax, imposed by the governor and Legislature last year.

Kerwin promises a constructive approach, and voters ought to give her the chance by sending her to Lansing.